AUDREY CHEN is a 2nd generation Chinese/Taiwanese-American musician who was born into a family of material scientists, doctors and engineers, outside of Chicago in 1976. Parting ways with the family convention, she turned to the cello at age 8 and voice at 11. After years of classical and conservatory training in both instruments, with a resulting specialization in early and new music, she parted ways again in 2003 to begin new negotiations with sound in order to discover a more individually honest aesthetic. Since then, using the voice, cello and analog electronics, Chen’s work delves deeply into her own version of narrative and non-linear storytelling. A large component of her music is improvised, is completely un-processed and her approach to this is extremely personal and visceral. Her playing explores the combination and layering of an analog synthesizer, preparations and traditional and extended techniques in both the voice and cello. She works to join these elements into a singular ecstatic personal language.

For nearly two decades, her predominant focus has been her solo work with the voice, cello and electronics, but she has more recently, in the last six years, begun to shift back towards the exploration of the voice as a primary instrument. Aside from her solo concerts, Chen performs currently in her longest running duo project since 2005 with Phil Minton; as BEAM SPLITTER with trombonist Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø; as MOPCUT with Lukas Koenig and Julien Desprez; in duo with electronic music artist Kaffe Matthews; and as a duo for voice/live digital process with Mexican sound artist Hugo Esquinca.

Among her more recent album releases include, “By the Stream” with Phil Minton – Subrosa (Brussels), “Hiss & Viscera” with Richard Scott – Sound Anatomy (Berlin), “Rough Tongue”, BEAM SPLITTER’S debut LP – Corvo Records (Berlin) and latest “Split Jaw” on Tripticks Tapes (US), her solo album “Runt Vigor” – Karl Records (Berlin) and two records with MOPCUT, “Accelerated Frames of Reference” – Trost (AT) and “Jitter”, A split release on Opal Tapes (UK) and Ventil Records (AT). C

hen has performed across Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Canada and the USA. Some festival appearances include: Festival Beyond Innocence (Osaka, JP), Maerzmusik (Berlin, DE), Klangspuren Festival (Schwaz, AT), NUMA Circuit (Tenerife, ES), Sound of Stockholm (Stockholm, SE), Jazz Saalfelden (Saalfelden, AT), Plateaux Festival (Torun, PL), Color Out of Space (Brighton, UK), Wels Music Unlimited (Wels, AT), 2PI Festival (Hangzhou, CN), Jazz a Luz (Luz-Saint-Saveur, FR), Festival Muzzix (Lille, FR), La Voix est Libre (Toulouse/Paris, FR), Total Meeting (Tours, FR), Now Now Festival (Sydney, AU), Uncool Festival (Poschiavo, CH), the Next Festival (Bratislava, SK), Colour Out of Space (Brighton, UK), Donau Festival (Krems, AT), Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville/FIMAV (CA), Festival Ecuatoriano de Música Contemporánea (Quito,Ecuador), Elevate Festival (Graz, AT), Ear We Are (Biel, CH), Meteo Festival (Mulhouse, FR), Angelica Festival (Bologna, IT), Wiener Festwochen (Vienna, AT) and Wien Modern (Vienna, AT). And venues such as: Covent Garden (London, UK), Radialsystem (Berlin, DE), Zacheta National Gallery (Warsaw, PL), Museé du quai Branly (Paris, FR), Radio France (Paris, FR), Theatre Bouffes du Nord (Paris, FR), Auditorio de Tenerife (Tenerife, ES), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires, AR), Bimhuis, (Amsterdam, NL), Rote Fabrik (Zurich, CH), Teatro Fondamenta Nuove (Venice, IT), DOM (Moscow, RU), Anton Kern Gallery (NYC, US), Wiener Konzerthaus (Vienna, AT), Lille Opera (Lille, FR) and Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center (Water Mill, NY, US). Since 2011, she relocated to Berlin, Germany from Baltimore, MD USA and continues to maintain an active international touring schedule.

“…mining material in between – and beyond – previous utterance. Finding sound via microtones of larynx squeak, blowing wind turbulence with lip-flip flutters, and plumming the corporeal with full throated phonation” – Tim Leanse UPEND LA 2020

“Singing with Audrey is like working with all the possible noises of the universe and beyond, earthquakes, colliding galaxies and slugs sliding down a wet window, very quiet.”  – Phil Minton, Minton at 80, The Wire Magazine December 2020 “Audrey Chen has created an uncompromising and idiosyncratic music, tightly disciplined yet acoustically wild and heavy with implication. Her ultra-verbal vocalising, often reminiscent of the visceral and emotionally charged sound poetry of François Dufréne or Henri Chopin, exposes physiological aspects of utterance that are concealed within standardised articulation and day to day speech. Fleshy, breath-driven and flecked with spittle, Chen’s voice emanates not just from her mouth but from an ensemble of upper body surfaces, channels, passages, and cavities.” – Julien Cowley THE WIRE